Canadian Grand Prix: Who offers best chance to unseat Peter Sagan, Greg van Avermaet?

If this weekend’s bike racing wasn’t already hard enough with the inclusion of last year’s Grand Prix Cyclistes champions Peter Sagan (Québec City) and Greg van Avermaet (Montréal) returning to the two ultra popular Canadian WorldTour races, it appears that Tour de France runner-up and 2015 Québec City winner Rigoberto Urán will also be on the start at the first of the two events which kick off on Friday before closing in Montréal two days later.

“It’s a race I like a lot, I’m in my best shape,” said Urán, who appeared seemingly unaffected by the potential collapse of his Cannondale-Drapac squad swirling at season’s end due to a lack of viable commercial sponsorship. “I always feel good mentally and the season finishes in October. So, we’ll see.”

With weather expected to play a factor, Sagan was a bit more reserved with his response.

“It could definitely affect the race,” said the 27-year-old double world champion rider from Bora-Hansgrohe, who is looking for his 100th pro win. “We’ve always raced here in dry conditions and don’t know what to expect. It’s a town circuit, there could be oil on the course.”

For the reigning Olympic champion, BMC Racing’s van Avermaet is thoroughly thrilled to be back at the GPCQM — a race he has collected eight top 10 finishes in the past five years, including his win in Montréal last season over Sagan.

“For sure these are two of the nicest races in the calendar for me,” said the 32-year-old van Avermaet, who won the 2017 editions of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, E3 Harelbeke, Gent-Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix. “I’m always happy to be here. I won, I came second and third. Those races suit me and it shows in my results.

“I think Québec suits me better I never won here,” he continued. “I’m going to try again.”

With such a star-studded start list, can anyone expect to crack the podium with Sagan, van Avermaet and Urán on the line?

Maybe Simon Gerrans (Orica-Scott), who swept the series in 2014 after initially winning Québec City two years earlier? The 2012 Milan-San Remo winner and 2014 Liège-Bastogne-Liège champion should enter the race hungry for his first win of the season.

Or fellow Aussie Nathan Haas (Dimension Data), who looked magnificent to start the year with a bronze medal at the Australian nationals, followed by a fourth-place on general classification at the Tour Down Under, seventh at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and fourth at Amstel Gold.

“Last year, we proved that we can get close to the podium with Nathan [Haas] and that’s going to be the general objective again this year,” said Dimension Data sports director Oli Cookson on the 28-year-old’s sixth- and fifth-place results respectively. “We have great riders like Kristian [Sbaragli] and Reinie [Janse van Rensburg] who can be there in the final to help Nathan.”

Or perhaps look no further than Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb), who will join his fellow countrymen Gerrans and Haas, and maybe even New Zealander Jack Bauer (Quick-Step Floors) for serious contention north of the border this weekend.

The 26-year-old Matthews is flying high after taking two stages en route to the points classification at the Tour de France to halt Sagan’s streak at five after the Slovakian was expelled on Stage 4 for allegedly crashing Mark Cavendish into the barrier during the bunch sprint finale.

The three-time Paris-Nice stage winner and 2015 UCI road race world championships silver medallist is enjoying a resurgence in the latter half of his first season at Sunweb. However, he will not be alone as teammate and 2017 Giro d’Italia winner Tom Dumoulin is also on the start in an effort to fine tune prior to the time trial world championship in Bergen, Norway, next month.

The 26-year-old Dutchman finished second in Québec City in 2014 and sixth in Montréal the same year.

“On paper, I would say that Montréal suits me better, but I finished second in Québec City. We’ll see,” Dumoulin told media at the Wednesday press conference. “But I still believe that on good form I can have my chance in a one-day race.”